What is your religious belief now?

by jwfacts 191 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Qcmbr

  I don't think I'm more or less loving than I ever was, religion didn't make me more loving any more than it improved my ability to walk on water but it did put me in the awkward position of emotional dependency. Having been taught that god is and that Jesus died for me and all good came through them and doubt was from Satan I was stuck attributing good feelings to heaven and bad ones to hell and having to do and think everything Mormon to 'increase' heaven's blessings of good feelings. Now that I reject the very concept of Christ I get to see that good and bad are merely perceptions of current conditions made by my own mind. I get to accept bad feelings and interpret them as I want ( sometimes they are very useful!) without resorting to further 'righteous living' - like scripture reading and prayer - to try and thwart Satan.

  My actual belief system is skepticism / secular humanism which should not be confused with atheism.
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  2+2=5

  A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is kicked out for what he knows. — Samuel Clemens

  Nice.
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  andys

  Gradually over time after leaving the borg 2 years ago my beliefs have been graudually changing, I would consider myself a free minded christian, I do believe in Jesus and simply believe thats all that is needed, and I hope this makes sense overall I am burned out on opening the bible and trying to figure it out so right now the bible is just an unopened book on my shelf, also sometimes I'll go to church, mostly during the holidays I have found a very aweomse time of year to visit since I love celebrating the holidays, one of the reasons I celebrate the holidays is because I want to show I am part of the human family instead of feeling I am separte and the holidays have taught me so much, this year all the holidays have had more meaning.
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  Rattigan350

  Agnostic. God is irrelevant until he becomes relevant.

  "If you are inactive/faded but not disfellowshipped, are you treated as if you were disfellowshipped?"

  I treat others as if they are disfellowshipped, because I really don't care to waste time talking with them.
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  James Brown

  I was born in the truth in 1952. I escaped in 83. I am now an agnostic/ atheist. I consider all posibilities. All the posibilities that I have examined since 83 have holes which makes me consider the posibility that we are enginered or programed not to know the truth. It seems like we are in some kind of matrix, a giant computer.
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  soontobe

  The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church. — Ferdinand Magellan

  Magellan never said that.

  Lighthouses are more helpful then churches. — Benjamin Franklin

  Benjamin Franklin never said that.
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  Apognophos

  A man is accepted into church for what he believes—and turned out for what he knows.

  Surprisingly, Clemens (Mark Twain) did say that.
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  still thinking

  by jove soontobe...I do believe you are correct!

  Misattributed

  • The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. For I have seen the shadow of the earth on the moon and I have more faith in the Shadow than in the Church.
    • This quotation is often found on the internet attributed to Magellan, but never with a source, and no occurrence prior to its use byRobert Green Ingersoll in his essay "Individuality" has been located. Thus, it is spurious and not to be attributed to Magellan. In that essay Ingersoll states:

  It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions, — some one who had the grandeur to say his say. I believe it was Magellan who said, "The church says the earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the church." On the prow of his ship were disobedience, defiance, scorn, and success.

  \

  http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan
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  still thinking

  And...Benjamin Franklins quote about lighthouses seems to be somewhat spurious...

  This (pseudo-)quotation has been circulating since at least 1997, and possibly since the 1960s or 1970s, but it is not found in Franklin’s works. Sometimes it is given as “Lighthouses are more helpful than churches” or “A lighthouse is more useful than a church,” but no form is authentic.

  This is probably intended as a summary of something Franklin is said to have written to his wife on 17 July 1757 after a narrow escape from shipwreck off the English coast. This letter appears to have been lost, but an excerpt appears in a footnote on p. 133 of the 1818 edition ofMemoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin:

  The bell ringing for church, we went thither immediately, and with hearts full of gratitude, returned sincere thanks to God for the mercies we had received: were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a light-house.

  http://fakehistory.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/benjamin-franklin-lighthouses-and-churches/
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  Balaamsass

  I believe most religion is ...."a snare and a racket" especially WTBTS. Anyone claiming to be "Gods Channel" now sets off my con artist radar.

  The wife says I am a "Jew for Jesus", but actually I am an open minded agnostic who believes in "guided evolution". I am not certain we have the brain cells to understand a supreme being any more than the bugs in the backyard understand what I am doing in the garden working.

  I believe God could never be as insecure, petty, and cruel as a bunch of female hating, childless, uneducated old men at Bethel protray him. I also believe people tend to reflect the God they worship and vice versa.